i'm also going to sarah lawrence in the fall. i didn't get to visit the campus so i'm glad you had such a positive reaction to it. i'll just have to go on blind faith, but i also have a gut feeling it is absolutely the right place for me.

As of Wednesday, I finally had answers from every school I applied to. And though being rejected by Bennington was a little disappointing, I'm giggling with glee about starting Stonecoast in July. Good luck everyone!

Turned down Lesley, Goucher, and this morning, UNCW (it took them this long to give me the funding situation). UNCW sounds like a great program. I hope someone gets a call today who was looking forward to the beach...

I just declined a funded opportunity here at my alma mater to study language and literature. In its place I am attending Northern Michigan's MA in (creative) writing. So far, it is an unfunded opportunity, but I am a "viable option" on the backup list. I spoke with the director of the program, who is also my advisor, and found that there are indeed positions opening up and that the committee will be filling those spots in the next few weeks.

Even if I don't get funded, I am happy with the decision. My alma mater, Western Illinois, has grown dull and repressive by its lack of motivation, and after completing 28 straight credit hours of lit, I am ready for a well needed break. The MA in writing is solely writing seminars and workshops, and I am excited to finally be rid of the oppressive Illinois summers and flat, unsightly landscape. Lake Superior, here I come.

Feel free to call me an idiot. I know that the possibility of going further into debt stifles some people (my nervous parents included) but I need a release. Let's see how many more cliches I can fit into this post.

I also found that I likely will not be offered a spot at SIUC off the waitlist because I am 10th, out of 10. There is still a slight possibility, in which case I'll be headed further south and closer to the equator. I may melt, but at least it'll be an MFA program.

This might be my last post for a while. Hopefully for two years, when I'm sick of the U.P of Michigan and ready to apply to MFA programs for a second round. I'll be older, wiser, more mature, and hopefully, a much better writer than I am now.

The UP is going to knock you on your ass after Illinois (in a good way). Good luck and have fun. Remember, this is a voluntary process, just like donating a kidney.

Be sure to get out in the winter, or you'll go nuts. Try some cross-country skiing in the Porkies or drive a snowmobile 100mph across a frozen lake. There's nothing like it. Also, you have to hike the North Country Trail through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

http://www.nps.gov/piro/planyourvisit/scenicsites.htm

If you are really looking to escape, take the ferry out of Houghton to Isle Royale for a few days. Moose, wolves, loons--it's the wildest place in the U.S. outside of the northern Rockies.

Minnesota State Moorhead is offering a 10,000 stipend/TA position + tuition remission.

Colorado State is offering me 4,000 worth of aid for the first year with a position as the editor of the lit mag. I was told that getting a TA position my 2nd and 3rd years was very likely. So I'd go into about 12,000 worth of debt for my first year.

CSU location is much more appealing to me. I already told MSUM that I would be attending so I feel like a jerk if I back out - especially because the faculty has been so great to me.

What do you guys think? (I already turned down UNCW and SFSU because of funding issues, but I'm hesitant to turn down CSU)

I don't know anything about MSUM, but I really love CSU's program. I would have went there if I had gotten funding. I still almost went there without the funding. It broke my heart to decline their offer.

That being said, you did commit to MSUM and you have to be a person of your word. Plus they're giving you a lot more money.

Then again, if you're not married and have no kids or anyone else to support and you don't mind going into debt and you're drawn to CSU, you should go for it. (I would love for there to be a thread next year where we revisit people's choices and see if they have any regrets.)

No, they are not offering me in-state tuition, so I think it ends up being 18,000 for the year. I'm probably going to end up applying for some other internships. If I don't get a TA-ship the second or third year, then I'm really screwed - I'll have to come back to Nevada and go work in a brothel in Pahrump to pay all this crap off.

I think $18,000 is a hell of a lot of money to borrow for one year of an MFA. There are cheaper ways to get your education--you can always find another way to spend time in Colorado. Just my opinion, but hope it helps.

I decided to turn down my offers from Sarah Lawrence, Virginia Commonwealth, and Univ. of Missouri-St. Louis after moving to the top of the waitlist at UNCG, which became my dream program after one visit. However, I found out last week that UNCG has a full house so I won't be going there. (I knew this before turning down my other offers, so it wasn't a blind decision.) I chose to go this way because I didn't get that "gut feeling" the other schools that accepted me were where I needed to be right now. They didn't have any definite funding, and I wasn't ready to go into that much debt, especially in cities where the cost of living would have made it a further challenge. I've written about my decision-making here, if you're interested: http://realitywrites.wordpress.com And I'll be back to the Speakeasy in the fall to start this process all over again!

Congrats to everyone else who found their MFA homes! It was a pleasure to go through this with you!

So I've been thinking hard about it the past two hours and realized the decision has pretty much been made. Indiana along with a couple of other schools was my third choice school. My first choice (MCW) and second choices have told me No and the city of Irvine is so expensive that I know even if UCIrvine called at this point they'd have to do something extraordinary to pull me away from Indiana.

VaTech* did pull me because, of course I would have loved working with the faculty, Virginia is my favorite state in the union and I love that part of Virginia, but the program to which I've been accepted at Indiana is a four year combined program: MFA in fiction and MA in African Diaspora Studies. Both Va Tech and Indiana were fully funded but I'm loving the fourth year at Indiana that will give me more time to know where I'll be and from where my money will be coming as I work for another year on my writing. And, Indiana gave me a fellowship which changed their full funding from being less than Va Tech's to more than Va Tech's for me.

So off with me to Indiana University!

Good Luck to everybody! Its been a much better notification season going through this with all of you than it would have been in the dark by myself. Feel free to ask any questions --by post or pm.

*Because of the deadlines to respond to my fellowship offers, I had to pose serious questions to VaTech regarding what they could do financially. My situation is not an indication of when they will be informing others of admission into the program.

Let me add that while funding and time were the final crucial factors in my decision, every school to which I applied made my list because I felt a strong connection to the professors' writing -- I felt that I could and feel that I will at Indiana find a mentor amongst the authors on the faculty.